Laje Football Field / Miguel Marcelino

Architects: Miguel Marcelino
Area: 472 m²
Year: 2025
Photography: Lourenço T. Abreu
Collaborators: Miguel Coutinho, João Neto, Martina Cappellini, Mariana Almeida
Structural Engineering: Pedro Viegas
MEP Engineering: Pensamento Sustentável
Fire Safety: ETU
Landscape: Paulo Palma
General Contractor: ABB
Construction Supervision: Cofistrong
Client: Município de Oeiras
City/Location: Porto Salvo
Country: Portugal

The Laje Football Field by Miguel Marcelino transforms a steep hillside in Porto Salvo into a functional sports ground through a striking act of topographical precision. Defined by an “L”-shaped retaining wall in pigmented concrete, the intervention both stabilizes the terrain and shapes the architectural identity of the project. The wall’s geometry encloses a level pitch and forms a covered arcade that houses the field’s support facilities below ground. A descending ramp cuts through the slope to lead visitors into a sheltered atrium at the pitch’s edge, while the upper plateau serves as a public lookout with informal views of the field. By integrating structure, landscape, and form, the project reveals how minimal intervention can simultaneously articulate terrain, function, and civic space.

Set against the rugged topography of Porto Salvo, the Laje Football Field reimagines a familiar community facility as a precise architectural gesture carved directly into the landscape. Rather than imposing a foreign object on the site, the project emerges from the slope itself, its “L”-shaped retaining wall becoming both a structural necessity and an architectural statement. Composed of reinforced concrete tinted with iron oxide, the wall’s color and texture mirror the rocky outcrop, allowing the new intervention to blend with the natural strata of the terrain.

A ramp cuts into the hill, guiding players and visitors toward a covered atrium that opens to the pitch. This sequence of descent establishes a deliberate relationship between movement and enclosure, where the architecture feels simultaneously embedded in and open to its surroundings. The continuous bench running along the field’s edge eliminates any hierarchy among spectators, emphasizing equality and proximity in the viewing experience. Above, the newly formed plateau operates as an informal terrace, extending the public realm and framing panoramic views of the field and the wider landscape.

By merging architecture, engineering, and landscape design, Miguel Marcelino distills the project to its essential elements—earth, concrete, and geometry. The Laje Football Field is less an object than a terrain intervention, where form and function emerge naturally from the site’s physical conditions. The result is a civic space that balances structural precision with environmental harmony, reaffirming the architect’s commitment to integrating contemporary design within the enduring character of the Portuguese landscape.